FIFA Soccer 09

By 2008 the PlayStation 2 version of FIFA was no longer the flagship, and everyone involved seemed to know it. The PS3 and Xbox 360 editions got the newer engine and the headline features, while the PS2 release was built on a much older foundation. That gap is the most interesting thing about it. This is a game made for a console that was past its peak but still had an enormous installed base, especially across Europe.

What you get is a familiar FIFA matchday package: licensed leagues, clubs and players, the usual friendlies and tournament structures, and a Manager-style career option for those who want to follow a team over seasons. I will not pretend to recall every mode on the menu, and the PS2 build was trimmed compared with its siblings. The pitch action is where it matters, and there it plays a recognisable, slightly stiff style of football built around the face buttons for passing, shooting and through balls.

The age shows in the animation and pace. Players change direction with a heaviness that newer entries had already begun to shed, and the presentation is functional rather than lively. Still, the fundamentals are sound. Passing has a reliable weight, the AI keeps shape sensibly, and matches settle into a readable rhythm once you accept the limits of the engine. It rewards patience more than flair.

Its rival on the same system was Pro Evolution Soccer, which many players considered the better pure football game on PS2, and that comparison hangs over this release. FIFA's advantage was the licence, the squad data and the sense of belonging to the real season, and that is still what gives it a purpose now. It is a snapshot of the 2008 football world on the hardware that would not quite let go.

As a playable game it is competent and unremarkable, but as a document of the console's long goodbye it is oddly telling. The PS2 kept receiving yearly football updates well after the industry had moved on, and this one is among the last of that line.